LINDBERG ROAD: A HISTORY

1966: Tippecanoe County officials pave Lindberg Road, previously gravel, as it comes under heavier use. Shortly after the paving, water begins backing up in the Celery Bog. The road continues to deteriorate, requiring regular repaving.

1989: West Lafayette annexes Blackbird Farms, making Lindberg Road the city's problem. Planning for an improvement effort begins by the mid-1990s.

2001: The city embarks on a $3.3 million project funded with local, state and federal funds to rebuild Lindberg Road from McCormick Road to Northwestern Avenue.

2002: Work halts on the project as the roadbed continues to sink. This despite contractors' use of a method known as surcharging, in which dirt is hauled onto the site and allowed to settle.

After a redesign, officials go with a plan that involves drilling and pouring more than 1,000 concrete piles into the earth, then placing a load transfer platform over them to support the road.

2003: Lindberg Road reopens to traffic. Within a year, however, surface deformities appear as the supporting material sinks. The road develops low spots, leading to wavy, rippled pavement.

2005: A resurfacing project temporarily smoothes the ripples. But soon, they return.

2007: The general contractor of the 2001 Lindberg endeavor, West Lafayette-based Atlas Excavating, files suit against the Indiana Department of Transportation. That agency oversaw the project because it involved federal funds.

The lawsuit sought about $1 million in damages for payment the contractor said it was owed. Atlas officials previously said that when the attempted fix failed, INDOT withheld payment for the company's work -- even though the contractor built it to the state's specifications.

2008: West Lafayette officials agree to pay for the design of a Lindberg Road bridge over the Celery Bog. The county agrees to pay for the bridge's construction.

February 2010: Atlas Excavating's lawsuit against INDOT is settled for $555,000. Under the settlement terms, neither party admits liability in the payment dispute.

November 2010: Tippecanoe County officials award a contract to Reynolds-based Jack Isom Construction, which is tasked with building the bridge. It costs approximately $4.4 million.

Shortly afterward, the road closes for construction.

September 2011: The bridge tentatively is scheduled to open to traffic.

On a warm July afternoon, Craig Shroyer and Clinton Graham stood before the rising Lindberg Road bridge in West Lafayette and recounted the biggest challenge of the project.

"It was definitely the pile driving -- getting the bridge's foundation in place," said Graham, a project inspector with design firm American Structurepoint.

"We checked, double-checked and rechecked the piling to make sure the core of the foundation is in place."

There are ample reasons why Shroyer and Graham, who are overseeing the $4.4 million project for Tippecanoe County officials, were so concerned with the project's foundation.

The quarter-mile bridge that will span the Celery Bog is the latest attempt to solve a problem that has plagued local officials for years: A road that, despite millions of dollars and multiple attempts to fix it, had continued to sink into the ground.

The bridge project follows a $6 million endeavor launched in 2001, using local, state and federal funds, to improve the road and keep it from sinking into the bog. The stabilization attempt failed.

A 2005 attempt at eliminating ripples in the road worked only for a short time before the unpleasant bumps returned and gradually worsened.

Officials once rejected the idea of a bridge over the bog, calling it expensive and unnecessary. But those involved in the current project said they think this is the ultimate solution to the road's woes.

"I'm confident that we've got it right," said West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis.

"We have done all of our homework. The engineers -- from the contractors to the city engineers to the county engineers -- have used all their available resources to make sure it's the right solution, and the right solution done correctly."

The bridge work, undertaken by Reynolds-based Jack Isom Construction, began last fall. The bridge tentatively is scheduled to open to traffic by mid-September. Originally, officials hoped the bridge would open Aug. 1. But unusually wet weather this past spring and early summer caused crews to lose 35 work days, leading to the delay.

Construction crews recently have begun working two shifts each weekday and some Saturday shifts in an attempt to get the project done.

Tom Schwartzel, a member of the Blackbird Farms Neighborhood Association, said he wasn't surprised to hear the bridge will open later than expected.

He said because the road will remain closed as Purdue University's fall semester opens, traffic problems could materialize at McCormick Road and Kestral Boulevard, where there's only a stop sign.

"That could be interesting with students racing (from the nearby apartments) to get to class in the morning," Schwartzel said.

"But ... I do think the bridge will be worth it in the long run. I'd rather see them complete it right than rush it along."

What lies beneath

Complicating the bridge project is the fact that there are three distinctive types of soil underneath the bridge's span, said Shroyer, an American Structurepoint project supervisor.

The earth there ranges from typically firm, near the ends of the bridge, to so soft in the middle that the steel piles traveled 20 feet underground with just one smack of a pile driver.

In all, workers drove 168 piles an average of 80 to 85 feet into the ground, Shroyer said. Laid end to end, the steel piles supporting the Lindberg Road bridge would reach from the Celery Bog to Riehle Plaza, a distance of 2.7 miles.

The previous piles, made of poured concrete, numbered 1,000 but reached only about 20 feet into the ground, on average.

The new piling depths, which vary with location, were calculated early on when county officials hired Chicago-based GRL Engineers to test soils in that area.

The depth of the piles has been of particular concern to those involved. Earlier this year, while pile-driving was ongoing, city and county officials decided to re-drive about 28 piles 2 to 11 feet deeper each, said Opal Kuhl, the county's highway director.

It cost about $20,000 -- and the county footed the bill. But Kuhl said the extra depth is worth the money because it means the piles now are at the highest end of engineers' suggested depth range for the project.

"We wanted (the piles) to go to the maximum, full depth, just because of how things have happened in the past out there," Kuhl said. "So there will never be a question on this one."

Waiting patiently

Lissa McKinnis, who has lived near the Lindberg bridge site for 18 years, said she's grown accustomed to the closures required for the attempted fixes. There are pluses and minuses to Lindberg's ongoing closure, she said.

For example, there are far fewer vehicles on the portion of Lindberg closed to through traffic, she said. But public buses now use neighborhood side streets, clogging those narrow roads.

McKinnis echoed officials' desire to see Lindberg reopened as early as possible, especially given the increase in traffic that happens each fall when Purdue reconvenes and home football games begin.

McKinnis said nearby residents are hopeful the bridge finally will be a solution to the road's problems.

"I think people are very positive about it becoming better. We all love our community, and we want the road to be better -- even if it means traffic problems."

The Lindberg Road closure chiefly affects residents driving to or from neighborhoods on the outskirts of West Lafayette, as well as those living farther out on Indiana 26 West. The section of closed road also bisects the Purdue Kampen Course, which is the northernmost course of the Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex.

Dan Ross, head golf professional at Birck, said the project so far has not been a major disruption to golfers. In fact, he said, workers even complied with a request to temporarily shift work involving loud, heavy machinery to another part of the bridge -- away from the Kampen Course's 13th hole -- during the Big Ten Conference championship tournament in April.

Ross agreed something had to be done about the wavy pavement there.

"You heard a lot of complaints from people who had to drive the road. Depending on how fast you drove, you could actually bottom out your car," he said.

Finally, a bridge

Despite bad spring weather, Kuhl and other government officials said they're pleased with the progress at the construction site so far.

When pile driving wrapped up this spring, crews got to work forming the 31 concrete piers that sit atop the piles.

Once the piers were in place, crews began laying beams connecting them.

As of mid-July, workers had installed more than half of the 150 beams the bridge project prescribes. Once the beams are installed, workers will pour the bridge's 8-inch-thick deck, Shroyer said.

As workers pour the concrete deck, they will tine it -- a process that is similar to running a rake over its surface -- to make the deck more skid-resistant.

Once that's complete, workers will install a sealant on the concrete. The road surface will not be paved with asphalt because the additional pavement would be too much weight for the bridge to support. It's customary to leave bridges unpaved.

When the project is complete, the county will add the Lindberg bridge to its list of structures that undergo yearly sealing and patching, Kuhl said.

Kuhl, the county highway director, was West Lafayette's city engineer during the planning phases of the failed 2001 project. She said she's confident the ongoing project will be the solution to a problem that's needled residents and officials for years.

"It's unfortunate the first solution didn't work. I think there was a combination of issues that made the road fail," she said.

"But ... I think this is pretty much the ultimate solution. When you're going over a body of water and when you have to find some bedrock (for the foundation), that's normally what you do. This bridge should be the ultimate solution."